Improvement in methods of sawing lumber



J. SPRINGER.

METHOD oF SAWING LUMBER, No.1'86.893. Patented Jan.30,18'77.

VN'PETERS. PROTO-LITHOGRAPNEK WASHINGTON. D O

JASON SPRINGER, OF SANFRANCISCO', CALIFORNIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN METHODS OF SAWING LUMBER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 186.893, dated January 30, 1877; application filed August '29, 1876.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JASON SPRINGER, of San Francisco, in the county of San Francisco and State of California, have invented an improvement in Method of Sawing Lumber; and I do hereby declare that the following specification and accompanying drawings are intended to instruct those skilled in the art to use my improvement.

The object of my invention is to prepare lumber from the California pine which will make good merchantable doors, and enable a cheaper article to be produced for the California market than the doors at present made from Eastern pine. The California pine, and, indeed, all the soft woods of the Pacific slope, grow to a great size, and have a comparatively coarse grain. When sawed into lumber slashwise, in the usual way, and seasoned, it is subject to check and crack, shrink and swell, and warp and twist badly upon exposure to atmospheric changes, and will not hold paint satisfactorily.

The lumber, when prepared and sawed in the way I am about to describe, is free from all these objections, and can be made into good mcrchantable doors.

As before stated, the tree used for this lumber is very large, and cannot be manipulated in the ordinary way; and, besides, the heart of the tree is usually so imperfect, or its fiber is of so loose a character, that it cannot be used in manufactured articles, and hence the particular invention described in this specification is confined to the method of preparing a and sawing this lumber illustrated in the drawing, in which- Figure l is an end view of a log; Fig.2, plans or top views of sections of the same, with lines showing the subdivision of those sections into boards.

A is the end of the log, which has been cut into convenient lengths. This log is then split longitudinally into bolts by any suitable means, and divided into quarter's, then subdivided longitudinally into eighths or a great-er number of pieces, according to size, each splitting being from the circumference to the center of the log. These pieces thus obtained are subdivided crosswise, following substantially the course of the layers of wood, as shown in lines a a in. Fig. 2, leaving the immediate center or heart to be thrown away or used for other purposes. The sappy portion Z) on the outside of the log should be split oil from the pieces, and then these pieces are sawed into boards 0, at right angles through the layers of the wood, so that such layers are always vertical to the principal surfaces of the board, the narrow side pieces d being applicable to the frame-work and moldings of the doors.

By this particular mode or method of preparing and sawing the log, I have been enabled to produce from California pine good 7 merchantable doors, which do not shrink and swell, warp and twist, and which hold the paint under all atmospheric exposures, at a much cheaper rate than the doors in the market made from Eastern pine.

Having thus described my improvement, what I claim as new therein and of my own invention is The method herein described of manufacturing lumber from California pine, for the purposes set forth, consisting in splitting the logs radially intosections, then subdividing them crosswise along the line of the layers into smaller pieces, and then sawing such smaller pieces into boards across the line of the layers, substantially as described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 15th day of August, 187

JASON SPRINGER.

Witnesses:

- 0. W. M. SMITH,

PHILIP MAHLER. 

